The title of this painting relates to short poem I read by Ralph Blanchard in Rome, titled “The day after” which reads :

                                                              The tree alone directing us / 

                                                              To peaceful paths / With its

                                                                          symbolic star.

Alone in the Borghese Gardens I went for a little walk, retracing my old footsteps as a Rome Scholar twenty years before. A wind was picking up around the Stone Pine trees, lots of things were being blown around the park which is where I saw a ribbon like piece of fabric almost lasso these trees, it was blowing around, moving from one to another like a dancer moving between different partners? I was sat on a stone bench reading this poem watching this event unfold.

A week later, back in my London studio, I started a painting relating to this experience. I wanted to communicate the colors and shapes of Rome on that spring day. Teal-like skies with purple shadows populate the painting’s background, with the yellows, hot pinks and oranges of the flowers occupying the colors in the foreground. Interspersed are collaged drawings I made in Rome on that trip reflecting my thoughts at that time. The rectangles relate to the various benches I sat on in different areas of the Gardens. The lassoing line, relating to the experience I had in Rome, heads from top to bottom of the composition, whipping around and changing colour, coming in and out of view. This line has a curving dynamism which envelops and reveals shapes in the work, akin to the piece of fabric I saw blowing I the park that Spring morning.

Danny Rolph